Figure Out How to Cooperate!

Lu Chi had once thought that "not bad" was the highest praise in Luo Wen's dictionary. That was until one day, when he heard Luo Wen say to Shen Zhaoshuang, "That kid hasn't been as annoying lately." Only then did he realize there was a level of praise even higher than "not bad": being called "not as annoying."

In late autumn, just before winter set in, Luo Wen suddenly said something.

That evening, after they had just finished checking each other's work, the two were packing up to leave. Luo Wen leaned back in his chair and flipped through their records from the past few days. As he flipped through them, he suddenly stopped and looked at them.

"Come with me somewhere next month."

Lu Chi's hand paused. "Where?"

"South. Cangwu Valley." Luo Wen closed the records. "You've heard of it."

Lu Chi and Ning Xiaohe exchanged a glance. Of course they had heard of Cangwu Valley. It was a low-level Forbidden Land south of Linyuan—not especially dangerous, but every year there were rumors of a few reckless rogue cultivators entering and fleeing out in a sorry state. The Academy occasionally organized short training trips to the outskirts for upper-year students, but lower-year students were never allowed near it.

"The Forbidden Land?" Lu Chi's voice rose half a pitch.

"The outskirts," Luo Wen said. "You're not qualified to enter the inner valley yet."

Ning Xiaohe was quiet for a moment before asking, "What are we going there for?"

"To see whether the things you've practiced these past few months can still be used in a real setting." Luo Wen said it with the same tone he might use to say, "We're having noodles tonight." "And there are a few medicinal herbs over there whose living specimens you can't find elsewhere.